Tag Archives: Self-inquiry

Life is action in relationship. At present we are acting with drive of desire with an end in view.So desire will be free of end in view if it is not empirical,selfish, in the service of “me” and “mine”. We always seek a result from action. We don’t do any action without a reward. It is our habit.But that habit results in formation of “actor”, “doer”, “me”, “ego”.So action seeking a reward can never produce stillness of mind. On the contrary it results in more thoughts, more thought burden on mind. Such mind can never be free of its contents, such action cannot help in emptying of mind.Once a group of scholors met Sri Ramana Maharshi and asked “what is action without an end in view” (Nishkama Karma). Instead of replying Ramana Maharshi uprooted a spiky plant and with the help of leaves he made it into a beautiful stick which took six hours. One shepard lost his stich and looking for a new one. Ramana Maharshi gave the new stick to him.This is spontaneous action without an end in view.Scholors understood his existential message. In such action there is no “doer”, only “doing” is there. There is bondage due to action because no “doer” is born out of such action. So the action is “complete”.In action with an end in view. action will always be incomplete.

We know only conditioned action.Conditioning is old and so action is arising from the old. The translates the “new” and modify it.But interval between thoughts is always “new” and cannot modify the old. This does not mean that the “new” is exclusive. It is a state of deepening experience and so constant regeneration and is in constant revolution.It meets the problem anew,it meets the old without contaminated by it. This “new” is always moving and transforms everything it meets. The “new” goes on extending and old disappears by itself. There is no need to condemn, avoid or supress it.So thought arising in the interval disappears.

The interval between two thoughts gives the mind greater capacity to deal with any thought that may arise in the interval. The interval has vitality without any identification, condemnation, justification, interpretation.So self-inquiry is possible and easy in the presence of still mind with this interval.We should go on doing self-inquiry till such a time, this thought-free state becomes natural to us. Then we can tackle any problem in daily life “anew”.
In that state there is no sensation because sensation is thought process is verbal.What we are doing is that we are naming the living processes like fear, greed, anger, violence and creating their opposites and we are always involved in thought process trying to correct these energy leaking degenerating factors. Thought cannot do anything with a living process.If it understands this it will subside by itself. This subsidence of thought paves the way for “insight” of whole network of psychological problem which flowers in passive awareness of still mind, tells its story in detail and withers away. There is no need to “do” anything in psychological arena. So in psychological arena “insightful perception” is enough. Here non-doing is action. Self-inquiry is the way for it.

laya vinashane : absorption and destruction
ubhaya rodhane : by the restrain of both [prana and mind]
laya gatam : (the mind ) that has gone to absorption
punar: again
bhavati na: does not come into existence
mritam: having died.

Upadesa Saram Verse 13:
“Absorption or laya, destruction or nasa are the two kinds of mind control. When merely absorbed, it emerges again, but not when it is destroyed.”

Comment:
Subsidence of mind is two kinds. Abeyance (laya) and destruction (nasa).That which is in abeyance will rise but if mind dies it will not rise. The subsidence of mind is gained by breath restraint and in states like sleep, death, swoon, coma is temporary and is thus manolaya or abeyance of the mind. Since happiness is experienced only when the mind subsides and since rising of the mind is misery itself, if we are to enjoy happiness forever it is necessary that the mind is destroyed permanently. Such permanent destruction of the mind which is the true goal of all spiritual disciplines is called manonasa. The reason why breath control cannot bring about manonasa is breath control does not destroy the tendencies.

For making the mind subside permanently there is no adequate means other than self-enquiry. If made to subside by other means, the mind will remain as if subsided but will definitely rise again. Where as in manonasa (destruction of the mind) the “I” thought is pulled into the spiritual heart centre which eventually destroys it so completely that it never rises again. The concept of individual self is destroyed forever, only Self remains.

chitta-vayavah : the mind and the vital airs
cit kriya yutah: they are endowed with consciousness and the activising force.
sakhayoh dvayi: they are the two branches

sakti mulaka: the root cause of energy or power

The mind and the vital airs are the two branches with thought and action as functions that eminate from the same root.

Upadesa Saram Verse 12:
“Mind and breath manifesting in thought and action, branch out from a common source, Atma Sakti (Aham Spurana).”

Comment:
The mind is the conscious aspect, the power of objective knowing, thinking (Jnana Sakti) where as breath or life force (Prana) is the power of doing or action (kriya sakti).But the original power Aham Sphurana is like a trunk of a tree having mind and prana as two branches. So mind and prana are interrelated. The imaginary power of the mind comes to a stand still if breath is controlled. Likewise if mind stops imagining completely whatever is the reason breath comes to a standstill. Prana supplies energy to mind for thinking and to the body for it’s maintenance. When mind is strayed if we control the breath, immediately it feels suffocated, stops imagining and comes back to the present. If due to self-enquiry thought process collapses in the spiritual heart the breath is controlled. The existence of the mind depends upon it’s identity with something gross. In self-enquiry because we pay our entire attention on the source of mind identity with nonself including all adjuncts is nullified, so attraction to nonself does not exist and in such a state of being there is direct experience of nonexistence of the mind (naiva manasam).The ego, the thinker appears as a real entity because of our continuous identity with the nonself. This identity is broken when we pay attention only to “I” thought excluding all other thoughts. Then “I” thought is deprived of it’s identity with all other thoughts and perceptions it normally identifies with. Then the “I” thought start to subside in the spiritual heart and gets dissolved in it.

It is 5 am and everything is in tranquil state both inside and the outside. There is a transitional state between deep sleep and waking mode of the mind, called Bija Jagrat in which thought flow and tendencies are yet to take hold on our consciousness. If we can hold on to that state for some time, the undercurrent of it will have its effect al through the day. Every being has this state but because we are unaware it goes unnoticed. Daily we sleep without feeling that we are going into a supernatural state. Similarly we can go into a state of meditation in waking mode of mind. Every human is endowed with that potential but we have to actualize it. For sleeping we don’t do any methods. The more naturally we work in waking mode, sleep we will have state happens itself and we will have undisturbed sleep. Similarly meditation happens as naturally as it should be if we have the skill to live a life without conflict. It is the mental conflict that denies us natural happening of meditation in waking mode. So if we want such thing happen to us we have to live a life which is without conflict. But at present all our activity is resulting in mental conflict. So we have to change our way of thinking and life radically if we want to live a life without conflict. Basic needs can be fulfilled but psychological desires cannot be fulfilled. It is the desires that drive us mad with rabid ambition which results in a life with severe mental conflict. Sleep, food, making love with opposite gender(Maithunam),meditation are basic needs of every human being. But we are living in such a culture and way of life is such that during the waking mode of mind with our self centered activity we are doing everything that prevents natural happening of meditation while we are awake. Our culture is preventing us from the natural happening of meditation which is as natural as happening of daily sleep. The structure of society is such that it throws everybody into a stream of sorrow and misery. The society creates guilt if anybody tries to live naturally. Our society, our religions are all anti-life, anti-natural .Once we live a way of life which is against the nature and life we are split and we will have perennial mental conflict. Meditation will not happen to a mind that is split and in a state of conflict .A man with conflict and guilt can easily be enslaved. Our conditioning provides them both. Politicians keep such people enslaved at physical level by denying them bare basic needs of life. The priest at psychological level enslaves the humanity by keeping his mind tied to superstitions, beliefs, dogmas and encourages human to do complicated rituals, entertainment and tourism in the name of religion, inventing methods in the name of meditation, all of which aimed to exploit and enslave the fellow human being. In Pune one asram charges Rs1000/ as entry fee apart from charging Rs60,000/ for meditation method and other expenses as usual. See how we are exploiting fellow human being by denying him basic needs both at physical and psychological levels. No savior will come and redeem us from all these anomalies. Such belief is just a nonsense. We have to redeem ourselves. We have freedom to watch daily life which is a stream of misery. If you carefully watch you will be an outsider to that stream. That watching of daily life and watching the response of our mind to the interaction outside is self-inquiry. It is such a simple thing to be an outsider to that stream of misery. If you really watch you will never enter into that stream again. If you are a watcher, your mind is not split and is not in conflict and for such a mind meditation happens in waking mode and it becomes as natural as happening of sleep-In meditation is happening spontaneously to any person we are calling him as a saint. He is not a saint, he is just living a natural life and you can also live like that, he is just an example. Be free of all beliefs, dogmas, religions which are nothing but organized beliefs, spontaneous meditation will happen to your mind and you will live a life of joy, love, compassion which is real religiosity.

Man lives in a paradox.He is born in a loveless and selfish society and so trained to “act” in that direction which inevitably brings misery.To be free of misery and sorrow he has to “act” differently which does not bring misery and conflict.Any action from the false “i’ is limited and so brings conflict and sorrow.Life is action and one cannot live without action but we have to act in such a way that action does not bind us.Action which proceeds from false “i” is associated with doer-ship.If we can act without any idea,motive,purpose,goal,future orientation, there is no “doer” in such action and so there is no suffering or residue of action.When action leaves residue there is suffering and there will be reincarnation.Such action without the center of false” i” is possible when one surrenders to the whole without any demands for fruit of action.Action without the false “i” is possible for the who has gone beyond the limitations of the mind and love is possible for the one who has gone beyond all self imposed limitations.Root of conflict and suffering is due to life of action with limitations intact. and so there will be self interest in such action.The progeny of conflict like anger,greed,violence,fear,jealousy etc follow such action like shadow and cause suffering.In self-inquiry we inquire into this wrong action which is the root of all human problems.Unless we change the present way of action which is self centered,meditation will not happen to us however sincerely we try to do it.So doing self-inquiry with earnestness is sine-qua-non for meditation to happen spontaneously in which we realize the ending of sorrow way of life and action
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Mind is the chief sensory organ though which awareness enters into the body and that awareness spreads all over the body through nerve fibers of senses.Senses limit the range
of comprehension of awareness.So all sensate values are limited and action based on them
is also limited.Limited action leads to conflict and strife,sorrow.So we have to find out is there
action which is not limited even while we are functioning from body,senses,mind? Let us inquire whether there is such a possibility.This is very important because life is relationship and action
and our present way of doing it is bringing us enormous sorrow.

When awarenes of mind is identified with sensate values like belief,dogma,ideas there is separate
feeling because of duality which leads to incomplete action to every challange in daily life,incomplete comprehension of the problem leading to residue of non-understanding and
incomplete experiencing.Such incomplete experience gives birth to memory which is stored
in memory cells.Conglomeration of all such incomplete experiences stored in memory cells is
ego.The memories stored in deeper recesses of brain form the unconscious part of ego and those stored in superficial layers is conscious part of ego but they are qualitatively the same because they are the outcome of incomplete action during the evolutionary perod.So ego
is a product of time and action from ego is producing sorrow and so anything we do in dimension of time brings sorrow.So time is sorrow.

We may like or dislike that bundle of memories called the ego but we cannot afford to ignore it because it knocks our door every moment till it is resolved.Instead of facing that bundle and inquire into many escape into various things and religion provides an honorable escape by
providing various entertainements in the name of spirituality,encouraging to keep the ego “safely” to do the so called spiritual disciplines.They encourage you to continue in the metaphysical sleep on which whole business of priesthood and religion depend.It is a very good business in the sense that there is no investment,risk factors are nil,returns are enormous.With incomplete action with its consequent conflict every man is split and feels guilty and a man with split can easily be enslaved both physically and psychologically.On this fundamental split in the human the whole religion and its exploitation depend.

So ego is the problem of whoe humanity.How to approach that problem?
Any action born out of ego which itself is the result of incomplete action is bound to be incomplete and ego can never comprehend the wholeness of any problem,be it at physical or metaphysical level.If we approach the problem with ego with an end in view first of all it becomes split again and action born out of it will be increasingly limited and there is friction between these split parts of ego leading to degeneracy of mind and its functions.That is what is happening to many by the time they reach 50-60 years.

When we do not comprehend a problem,we approach it with an idea with an end in view.
If we really comprehend the wholeness of problem we do not need an idea to resolve the problem because in the very comprehension there is the resolution of the problem.

A true inquirer is one who is continuously aware of mind functioning without a result in view,
without an idea,conclusion,prejudice.Then only there can be integrated and complete action
without any residue of non-understanding.Understanding our mind and its way of functioning
is “real action” which is holistic.

If we understand who we are,where we are,how we are then only we can relate sanely with the others,things,and nature and understand the nature of sensate values.Without the total comprehension of the ego which is the case now,life is painful with constant conflict and contradiction.If i am not misunderstood,the whole humanity is in a socially adjustable mental disorder living with perennial conflict both inside and outside.

To undrstand the process of life we must understand thoughts and feelings arising in us when
we relate to others,sensate values,things and nature.To understand any relation mind must be free,it should not be fixed to an idea,belief,dogma.But many of us act basing on an idea,then it is not an action at all,it is the idea that is perpetuating through us.When ideas shape our action,it amounts to inaction.Ideas are the outcome of sensation and so limited and so they create their own opposition.So we are in constant conflict because of following ideas.
So when relationship which is life and action conditioned by sensation there is no understanding of that relationship in toto.

Many feel that path of action(karma marga) and path of discrimination(Jnana marga) are different.
First of all to feel that there are paths to a living thing is immature and foolish.There can be path to only to a dead and static thing.Without understanding “action” we cannot move an inch towards the Self.So at the psychological level perception is action and that action leads to instant understanding in a timeless dimension.

For those who would really want to understand truth,they must fully grasp the significanc of relationship which is life and action.If such relationship is based on an idea,it is not a holistic action at all and it is not possible to comprehend the relationship in totality because idea circumscribes the relationship and so then the relationship is based on sensation and so separation and so without love.Unfortunately all our relationships are based on ego which is the quintessence of sensation with separate feeling and so without love.

Most of us don’t hear the continuous knocking of ego with a quiet mind.Our listening to it is premediated,calculated,always interpreting,judging,comparing with what you know.
Such listening is no listening at all.If you listen to ego with a mind that is free of ideas,dogma,belief with just passive awareness then there is the total comprehension of the ego and the way it functions,and in that comprehension you go beyond the ego and enter into timeless dimension and such a mind discovers the ultimate reality.Once you touch the reality your mind is radically changed,undergoes a fundamental revolution which is the only revoution and such a mind is in constant mutation and creativity.

So let us listen to the ego with a quiet mind with passive awareness by doing self and taste the reality and undergo radical change in the way of our thinking and so the way we relate to the other and the way we act.

Man is an imprisoned seed of consciousness because of identity with things like body, beliefs, dogma, race, religion, gender, family, nation etc. Once consciousness is limited like this because of identity there is duality
And so conflict, strife, violence, activity becomes self centered with its disastrous consequences and perennial misery. Consciousness always
tries to come out of this limitation and because it has no comprehensive understanding of this identity its action results in self action rather than
release from the self. Mystics like Ramana Maharshi prescribe ‘Who am I” quest to get rid of this identity. As the quest deepens suddenly the question and the questioner disappears and you penetrate directly into
The existence and you disappear as a separate entity. In this existential experiencing you know the way the seed knows how to grow. The quest functions like a sword to cut all answers that mind can manage.

So we must understand with what stuff the ego is made and whether it is an entity or just a process, whether it is substantial or dream like.
Originally “I-am-the-body-idea” is pure. It is the conduit through which awareness flows to the body. It is the association of other thoughts that makes up the ego. Unless we know the mechanics of ego functioning we will not be able to solve any problems of life. Solving the problems of life on empirical basis is like pruning the leaves leaving the trunk, branches and root of the tree. It is not uprooting, leaves and branches will come more than before. Visible is never the root, root is always hidden. So never fight with the visible, it is just like fighting with shadows and the same problems will come up again and again, there cannot be any transformation of the mind or your way of life till they are resolved.

If you earnestly watch your inner, you will never come across entity like mind(Naiva manasam).Everybody wants peace of mind and because the nature of mind is movement, the movement itself is an obstruction to peace. Mind is tense state, no mind(Amanaska) is peace.

Individual thoughts exist and they move so fast you cannot see the gaps in between. If you deeply observe you will see one thought, another, another thought but no mind. A rapid stream of individual thoughts makes us to feel that there an entity like mind. Such observation is possible when our attention is at the birth place of thoughts. It is not the thoughts that are already produced that are the problem because of life span pf thought is short live but continuous uncontrolled birth of new thoughts that are the main problem. We must inquire into what cause such continuous uncontrolled production of thoughts.

Thought floats in the inner space of conscious sky and there will be intervals. If you watch with aloofness in self-inquiry intervals are more than thoughts. In those gaps Satori happens. In these gaps truth knocks your door, the guest comes, god is realized. When awareness is absolute, there is only a vast gap of nothingness. This is an existential answer to “Who am I” investigation.

Thoughts are like clouds, movement is their nature. They can be so thick that you cannot see the sky of pure consciousness hidden behind them. Thoughts are like clouds hovering around you, filling you. In case of a realized man they turn back and they cannot enter his conscious field. To have a glimpse of sky of consciousness in the gap between the thoughts is Satori and to be one with the inner sky is Samadhi. From Satori to Samadhi is a process of deep insight into the mind which is real self-inquiry. So self-inquiry is easy for those who already had Satori.

Thought exists separate from you and mind becomes a problem only when consciousness identify with thoughts. So identity is the basic problem and from that all other problems arise. Always be “attentive” to that which never comes and goes. Ramana Maharshi advises to hold on to this, then you can see the distance between you and the thoughts. If you identify with the thoughts instead of witnessing them you become the mind. Then the essential guest is lost. This is the original fall, original sin and the only sin that exists. All other sins are progeny of this original sin. Then momentary becomes significant, sensate values prevail and getting involved is them is Samsara.

Those who went very deep into nature of things through physics feel that things are thoughts. For those who deeper into their own Self say thoughts are things.This is exactly Bhagawan points out in “Who am I” book that world and its things are not apart from mind, both of them rise and disappear together. Things are physical part of thought, and thoughts are mental part of things. That is why Hindus call the mind Chit(consciousness)-Jada(insentient matter) grandhi(knot).

The knowing that thoughts are things is very important. Bhagawan’s “Who am I” technique is to through these “things” and the last thing to be thrown is “who am I” thought. There is no effort in throwing these things of thought and they will be burnt in the fire of awareness. Universe is filled with thoughts and things.

If you are really integrated in awareness thoughts don’t enter you, they will be repelled. Then you are an impenetrable citadel of awareness which is the case with a realized soul. As you continue to do self-inquiry you get attuned to observe with pure awareness rather than from ego awareness through which we are trained and conditioned to observe so far. Then you will know thought clouds have no existential roots. They wander because they have no home, no roots they wander. If we do not interfere with their wandering they won’t harm us but if we identify with them or reject them they persist and start causing so many problems to us. Identifying with them is to interfere with their natural wandering flow. So don’t fight with them.How can you stop mind by creating another mind? Once you know you are a sky of consciousness, judgment stops and you see the things, the other “as they really are” and that is what Buddhahood means. So to attain that state of being which is natural to us let us do self-inquiry.

For all practical purposes activity of ego depends on past memory and experiences resulting in incomplete action and so perennial conflict.With ego we cannot do total action.That is why ego is the source of misery and sorrow to humanity.So we must destroy the mental memory by not identifying with it.At present we are identified with it and so we gave autonomous status to it and so the past goes on perpetuating itself.Identity with mental memory interferes and distorts our perception of things in life and it makes us incapable of seeing things “as they really are”.When we stop identifying with mental memory it fails to receive energy from us and so it no longer interferes in our affairs.Not identifying with the mental memory does not destroy remembering faculty and we can use the past more efficiently when we do not identify with it.Perception without past is a strange phenomena.In such perception there is no object on which we focus our attention in particular.Here the attention is not directed towards anything and so there is no experience and experiencer. In object oriented percption recognition is required and so the “me” comes into picture and distorts the perception by judging,categorizing,evaluating,measuring the object.In pure perception objects have no importance because it is not a fragmentary perception.It is a perception without the center called perceiver,the me,ego,censor.It is pure perception. Such perception which is free from shadow of the past is blissful. In such perception total action takes place and so life will be without conflict.